In the late 1960s a couple of artist customers came to Benti’s father asking for help in preparing for exhibitions.

“That’s how we got into presentations,” Benti said, adding that the business really started to take off in the 1980s.

In October, Dynamic Display landed the sole distribution rights for Long Island, Queens and Brooklyn for Nimlok, a trade show exhibition manufacturer with 200 distributors in 56 countries.

Benti’s customers, who include, Globecomm, Newsday, Atlantis Marine World and other Long Island companies, will now have state-of-the-art materials for their exhibition booth because of the Nimlok deal, he said.

Despite the killer economic hurricane, Benti noted that promoting your product or service at a show is still one of the best ways to grow. According to TradeShow Week, an industry publication, attendance was down 1.3 percent last year over 2007, but the Trade Show Exhibit Association said attendance was up 3 percent over the same period.

Another industry monitor, The Center for Exhibition Industry Research, reported that “audience interest factor” was very strong last year, with 80 percent of attendees at trade shows saying they were seriously engaged with exhibitors.

Dynamic Display has changed with the times, saving exhibitors, especially large companies, money in showing their wares, Benti said.

Catching the trend in exhibit construction, Dynamic Display, through its deal with Nimlok, can now offer light, inexpensive, aluminum modular exhibits, replacing the old construction method of using wood and heavy metal parts.

“Globecomm, for example, would fill up 15 crates of material for an exhibit to be shipped to a trade show, with each crate weighing anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 pounds,” Benti said. It was enormously expensive to move these behemoths long distances or overseas.

“Now with aluminum, the support structures are lighter and not as large, and Globecomm can get their shipping down to three crates, which is a huge savings,” he added.

If a company does 12 shows a year, they break even on cost after the fourth show, Benti said.

Dynamic Display works with a client to design the exhibit and then the plans are sent to Nimlok’s facility outside Chicago where the exhibit is manufactured and assembled. They then send the disassembled exhibit back to the client or to Dynamic Display.

“We’ll set it up for them, stage it and if they want any changes like adding graphics, we’ll do it and then they ship it to the shows,” Benti said.

But creating an exhibit is the last step in a process, Benti said. “We emphasize to our clients that we want to help them determine qualitative goals,” Benti said. “So many people just go to an event, set something up and then say, ‘Wow, that trade show stunk. It didn’t work for us.’”

Potential exhibitors should realize that trades shows can save a company up to 40 percent compared to a person-to-person sales call if done effectively, Benti said.

The problem is exhibitors are afraid of change and continue to do things the way they’ve done for a decade or more, Benti said. “Everyone’s different. We sit down with them and establish important goals and then we design around what they want to do.”

Calling off exhibiting at trade shows doesn’t make sense, even in a recession, Benti believes. “It’s committing suicide.”

7 comments

At least you’re able to still have your conventions. A lot of events are going to be cancelled on LI due to the changes in Insurance regulations that Suffolk is pushing through. And the stupid thing is it’s nearly impossible to obtain their new insurance amounts they want.

It’s interesting to see that technology is also being
used to lower the costs of mature products like trade
show displays. Of course, the success of a trade show
still requires executing the fundamentals — show
selection, pre-show promotion, booth graphic and
messaging, interacting with prospects, and post-show
follow-up.
— David Pinkowitz (www.dcpmarketing.com)

Among other ideas, we advise our clients to contact the show for email lists of this year’s registrants or last year’s attendees, whatever is available for rental, which would be for limited mailings sent by the show. Any contacts that do respond can become part of our clients’ in house lists, for unlimited use. There are many parts to developing effective email and snailmail campaigns, including the creation of time-limited offers, special webpages so response can be tracked and messages that will not be blocked. Finally, in this economy, we can offer much more reasonably priced, quality custom videos that can be shown at tradeshows, conferences, as part of presentations and posted to websites. Focusing on a company’s process, esp. custom work, expert staff, including the service department, building an ROI message and more demonstrates the company’s pride and skill in what it does.

“Everything changes, and if you’re not quick enough to realize that, change will run over you and keep right on going.” – Very true words, especially in the trade show booth industry, and especially in today’s economy. If you aren’t willing to change, and change as often as is necessary, you will get RUN OVER. Great post!

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